I am running iTunes 10.5.2 (11) on Lion 10.7.2 and I have an iPhone 4. Several times now I have created a playlist on my phone and the next time I sync to my mbp, itunes blows away the playlist on the phone. I had expected that iTunes would copy the playlist to the computer. Is there a way that I can prevent these playlists from being deleted?

Actually for me the playlists I create on my 4S are copied to the computer and I am pretty sure they also did for my iPhone 4. Perhaps it is something about the sync settings? I have iTunes set up to sync selected lists and artists and playlists created on the phone are automatically added to the selected lists when syncing.
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TurismoJan 2 '12 at 22:57

@Rick now that is weird. Seems we have to find out what is different in our setups. Are you using the wifi syncing or do you use the cable? If cable: do you sync automatically are do you trigger the sync manually. Seems weird that that should have an impact but I am running out of ideas...
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TurismoJan 6 '12 at 19:10